Alcohol-Signalling, Mommy Wine Culture, and how we use our culture making power on social media

Some people close to me and some people I admire from afar are in recovery from alcohol.

And that raised my awareness around the way I’ve often signalled rebellion or relaxation in my social media using updates or images of wine or cocktails or other variants of “Mommy Wine Culture” (it’s a thing).

Two years ago, when Toi Smith and I were strategizing about the social media images and messages  I would share, we factored this in. I decided, in my own business and culture making, that I would no long include pro-alcohol signalling in my social media images or updates. Deciding not to alcohol-signal is one of my feminist marketing decisions.

I never want an “and now, a drink” post to be a trigger or a temptation for people in recovery.

And maybe I should be using my culture making power to foster a recovery culture in which alcohol isn’t a shorthand for coping with trauma or inhumane pressures or an occasion for relating to each other, socially. Maybe.

(I’m not advocating prohibition, I definitely do NOT land in the pro-drug-war camp, I’m just starting to noodle the long and destructive impact of alcohol in my family lineage as well as in our cultural and national histories — alcohol was literally used as a weapon of colonization!)

I’m not saying this is the answer or The Rule but it’s one of the ways I’m using my culture making power: by trying to support my beloveds (known and unknown) who are in recovery.

Perhaps explicitly considering the way we alcohol-signal, and making a decision about it, (yours may different than mine) might be a valuable process for other culture makers, too.

#WeAreTheCultureMakers #FeministMarketing #FeministMarketingPractices